The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
With the rapid development of computer, electronic and communication technologies, a variety of wireless communication services based on wireless networks have been provided. Accordingly, services provided by mobile communication systems based on wireless communication networks have evolved from voice services to multimedia services that involve transmission of various data such as circuit data and packet data.
Among a variety of wireless Internet services using mobile communication terminals, a location based service (LBS) has attracted much attention due to the wide application and convenience thereof. LBS is a communication service that determines a location of a mobile communication terminal, such as a portable phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA), and provides additional information related to the determined location. Positioning technologies for providing the LBS may be classified into a network based positioning technology, a handset based positioning technology, and a hybrid positioning technology. Specifically, the network based positioning technology detects a location by way of software using a radiowave environment, which is a cell radius of a base station in a mobile communication network, in order to determine a location of a mobile communication terminal. The handset based positioning technology uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver mounted on a mobile communication terminal in order to determine a location of a mobile communication terminal. The hybrid positioning technology is a combination of the network based positioning technology and the handset based positioning technology.
Meanwhile, in order for positioning by using wireless LAN signals, there is a need for position information of an AP installed in a wireless LAN radiowave environment map generated by collecting wireless LAN signals. However, when collecting a wireless LAN radiowave environment through a radiowave environment determination apparatus, certain areas with densely installed APs disorient the establishment of the radiowave environment map. Therefore, there is a need for technology that is capable of estimating an AP position recognized in the collected wireless LAN radiowave environment map.